Fractional Sailboat Ownership

The concept of time sharing is not new. Even when I was young (before dinosaurs roamed the earth) the idea of sharing a vacation home, an RV, or a boat with others in some form of shared arrangement has appealed to some people. In the past couple of weeks two organizations that provide these services have come to my attention. Both of these organizations are large franchise operations and both are in expansion mode. Closest to home in both Racine, WI and Chicago, IL is SailTime. SailTime is both a sailing and a powerboat operation. On the sailing side they have partnered with Hunter. They offer Hunter 33's and Hunter 38's in a 1 + 7 configuration. (The 1 + 7 means that there is one owner-member and seven members per boat.) In addition SailTime has targeted Milwaukee as a "target base." The other operation is WindPath. They have partnered with Catalina Yachts. It looks like they will purchase just about any of the Catalina line starting at the 309 and up to (at least so far) the 400. They also have two levels of members: standard members and owner-members. WindPath has not made it to Lake Michigan yet but like SailTime they also have a base in Detroit. For those looking for a franchise opportunity both companies will set you up with your own SailTime or WindPath franchise for a personal investment of between $50,000 and $150,000. Both of these franchisers are trying to expand into 10 to 20 new locations both in the United States and overseas in the next year. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. SailTime is at http://www.sailtime.com WindPath is at http://windpath.com That should be easy to remember!